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1960 - 1970 Iron had been found near Mbabane and a railway to the sea for export was started in 1962 - this kicked off the industrial phase of the country's development which got going with the first major non-mining, non-agricultural project: a brewery. In 1963 there were some strikes at the asbestos mine - the British panicked and sent in their army. They left a few years later having seen no action whatsoever. Swaziland was having lengthy talks on Independance and there was a gradual transfer of power from the British to the Swazis. The Swazis were immovable on two areas during the negotiations: they wanted the land and they wanted the mineral rights. The concession era of the 1880's/90's was still fresh in their minds. All else was flexible - parliamentary systems, etc. Swaziland became independant in 1968, the government set about to redress what they perceived as almost a century of wrongs, and started a policy of localisation - putting Swazis into government posts previously held by whites. The government set about to redress what they perceived as almost a century of wrongs. After independance many Afrikaners did not like the idea of a black government or being told what to do by a black person and returned to South Africa. |